Sunday, October 19, 2014

Getting
a life do-over in the small theater town of Ashland, Oregon, has suited lawyer
Julie Payne to a T. After ten years in the Portland prosecutor’s office, she’s
enjoying her new, easy lifestyle, and she’s not looking for any complications.

Trace Watkins comes to town seeking the same refuge from life as a big city
banker. A new job might make Ashland his permanent address, and he likes what
he sees of the place, especially when he meets Julie one hot Halloween
night.The sparks fly instantly between the costumed couple, and Julie and Trace
waste no time connecting beneath the sheets while literally hiding behind their
masks.

But when the holiday hook-up ends, their real identities present a serious
snag: Trace manages the bank Julie happens to be suing. The only way they can
turn this trick into a treat is if both of them are willing to face their pasts
and finally bury the skeletons in their closets.

Excerpt for UNMASKING
LOVE by Peggy Bird

She
should ask him to stop. But apparently the sensible part of her had been tapped
out resisting her inclination to walk across the room to him when he’d smiled
at her. All that was left was the other part of her, the one that wanted him to
keep going. The smell of his aftershave, his soap, something, along with the
soft whisper of his voice and the feel of his arms around her, filled her
senses, made her forget where she was, who she was.

She
had to take control of this. Somehow. Maybe if she knew who he was under that
mask. She asked, “How do you know who I am when I don’t know who you are?”

“I
know you’re Juliet and I’m Romeo. What else matters tonight?”

Could
he really not know her? Did he really think she was the Juliet of her costume,
as he was the Romeo of his? He didn’t look or sound familiar, although she
couldn’t really see much because of his mask. And he hadn’t done more than
whisper. Should she really believe he was a stranger in town who had been as attracted
to her as she was to him from only a look across her living room?

Quietly,
for her ears only, he began to recite, “But, soft! What light through yonder
window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill
the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou, her maid,
art far more fair than she.”

Peggy Bird lives in the Pacific
Northwest where she sets most of her novels. To stay out of trouble—and the
rain—she writes stories about smart women and sexy men and creates the
occasional piece of glass art.Find Peggy at www.peggybirdwrites.net, on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/peggybirdauthor, and on Twitter @peggybirdwrites.